Death Holds Prisoners
by Skitter160
Summary: One must learn to cope.


**Death Holds Prisoners**

_A/N: This will not be a fluffly smutty usual Skitter160 piece. This is my first very heavy angst. **My first attempt at truly creating a tragedy**, and hopefully portraying it's feelings onto my readers. I have been wanting to write one since One Of Many (which was to end much differently). Anyway back to this story...I hope you can feel along with it! Please do let me know your thoughts and as always:** Constructive Criticism is much encouraged!**_

_**Warning: Suicidal undertones! And character death!**_

'Where am I?' Seto Kaiba thought to himself as he forced his eyelids to cooperate with him and open. When they finally deemed to listen he found himself staring at a foreign ceiling, or the blur of a foreign ceiling. It was white while the only ceilings he had ever awoken under were obscured by his canopy bed or images of Blue Eyes White Dragon and Mokuba. With that thought in mind he weighed his options and tried to find his voice not yet brave enough to fight his body into moving. The unsettling churning in his stomach and the heaviness of his body told him he had been drinking last night, much like every night these days. Finding his vocal cords at least seemed to be in tact he tried asking the question that was on his mind. "Where..." He erupted into a coughing fit immediately surprised at how hoarse his voice sounded. He could only vaguely recall some of the night anyway, going to the bar, walking by Kaiba Mansion, and going somewhere high up where something dreadful happened that he didn't want to think about.

"Ah you're awake." A gratingly familiar voice seemed to float across the room from where he lay on what he presumed was a couch or a bed. "Are you feeling any better than last night? Sorry about the bump on your head it's probably why you're so sore. If you hadn't woken up soon I was afraid I'd have to take you to the hospital..." The voice stopped suddenly probably not wanting to think about what he would have to explain there. The voice was much closer than the brunette thought it had been as yellow blur leaned over him placing something wet and cool on his forehead. "Don't worry you haven't gone to hell yet Kaiba." The voice assured him as if it wasn't sure the news would be received well.

Giving the what he now knew to be a blonde blur known as Joey Wheeler a dubious look and he scowled. As his vision cleared so did his memories and he was not happy with the way things had played out. "Are you sure about that?" The brunette spat heedless of the kindness he had been shown. It had been choice and Wheeler had ripped it away from him.

Joey paused a moment to think about it then shook his head a sad far off look in his amber eyes. "No I'm not really sure. But I know you're not going to heaven so this surely must be earth." He finished with a small but goofy grin that refused to meet his eyes. They looked so aged and worn by time even though not even a year had passed since their graduation. A long moment of silence passed between them as the blonde seemed to study the brunette now sprawled across his bed. "Do you think you can sit up and drink some water? I can also give you a pain killer if you'd like."

"Water is fine..." Kaiba frowned he was not used to this new Joey, the one that did not fight back and seemed to have his spirit robbed from him. It was more unsettling than the awful churning in his stomach.

"Hold on." Joey smiled a little softer and less fake watching as the once high and mighty CEO looked as lost as he felt. He stood up pulling a waste basket over to the bed side with a 'just-in-case' smile on his lips. Watching the very sore male struggled Joey helped him to sit up carefully as if he were made of glass. And then without any satisfaction he might of felt he watched as the brunette reached for the waste basket and promptly emptied out the contents of his stomach.

Kaiba frowned through his fringe watching Joey closely even as he dry heaved, the taste in his mouth disgusting. He wasn't sure why the other male was helping him, or why he had saved him. It was weighing on his mind as he took the cool refreshment without complaint. His silence allowing the other to dispose of the waste basket by placing it by the larger one across the room. Taking the first sip he studied the man he thought he had known and found he might have not known him at all. "Why did you stop me?" The brunette finally found the courage to ask the image replaying over and over in his mind of Joey pulling him away from the edge. It wasn't what he had wanted had he been sober, he wouldn't have done it sober. No matter how many times the thought had crossed his mind before he had just pushed himself into work even more.

Joey took a deep breath and allowed his sad eyes to stare into just as morose blue. "Kaiba..." He started slowly and was taken back when he was interrupted.

"Just Seto.." Seto Kaiba corrected him like the name had been a burn and before the blonde could ask why the sudden change he found himself explaining it. "That name, Kaiba...it has cost me so much... It has cost me more than I was willing to pay." He paused looking away from the enchantingly despairing amber eyes. "I would prefer if you just called me Seto." Seto looked at him squarely to make sure the point was made.

The blonde nodded slowly in understanding. "I can see that. Then just Joey is fine for me as well." He said slowly just to fill the silence, it was always so deafening these days. "Well then Seto... I saved you because I know what's it like to lose someone... I know what it's like to be alone." The blonde swallowed drily, he hadn't really talked about this in quite awhile but he smiled despite his discomfort and emotional pain.

The smile Joey gave him looked so hollow Seto was sure not even Yugi would have believed it. "Your Mother is still alive." Seto pointed out hoping it would be a positive point. It only served to prove his theory that he didn't know as much as he thought. Even though he had known the family history and how Joey's father had died of alcohol poisoning in their senior year he had never heard much about his mother. It was something he had never deemed worth his time with his little brother to take care of. There were a lot of regrets he could never fix now. He felt as hollow as Joey's smile.

"She isn't for me." Joey answered with a sullen look. Of course the blonde knew what the brunette was going on about in his socially awkward way, it was to make him feel better but it didn't. How could that bitch ever have made him feel better? He stopped his thoughts from going too far with a sigh. This wasn't about him this was about Kai..Seto and his needs, after all the guy didn't have good friends like he did. Even if they couldn't understand his pain they tried really hard to be there for him. Kai..Seto truly had no one and that was had led up to last night. He was sure of it. Joey wasn't going to let the other male just sit there and take it like this, he didn't believe in any part of that his rival of several years was that weak.

Seto nodded slowly taking another drink of his water finding the cool refreshing on his suddenly dry mouth. Another silence stretched on between them again filling with thoughts that neither of them could bring themselves to express yet. Things that they had both let fester and in some ways take over their very being.

Unable to take the heavy noiselessness of the room the blonde found his old habit of speaking before thinking coming into play. "I noticed you haven't been sleeping at Kaiba Mansion..." He found the words flowed out of his mouth without his consent but it was too late to stop them and too late to derail the thought so he pressed on. "When was the last time you went there?" He was genuinely curious but it felt so wrong to pry into the life of someone so broken.

"I..." Seto paused as a memory played slowly before his eyes. Of walking home to a empty house a phone ringing off the hook and that horrible feeling eating him from the inside out. And then that news, that devastating news. "Ever since I got the news. I've been staying in a hotel I own...One Mokuba had never been to." He watched the blonde nod and he looked around the small apartment. "Why didn't you move?"

"The money from your fund was only enough to cover the funeral costs..." Joey frowned thinking about the almost premonition like way that events had unfolded. Seto had set up a victims of accidental deaths fund, much because of the insistence of his public relations department. Not but a month later his own brother had died an accidental death, or at least that was how the police ruled it. According to them the gun shots that had killed Mokuba and Serenity who had both been out shopping together. It was recorded as stray bullets from a gang fight. Joey and Seto both knew that wasn't the case. One of Seto's enemies had hired out a gang Joey had once been involved in to take out Mokuba, Serenity had been a causality as well as many others. They had been thinking Kaiba Corp would fall. That hadn't been the case Kaiba corp had bared it's fangs on everyone and the CEO had pushed himself so much into work it was four months later and no company had been able to keep up with their intensity and drive.

"Your Mother didn't help?" Seto asked surprised. He was certain most parents would at least pay for the funeral of their own daughter if not be there for their son.

"She told me it was my fault and I had to pay for it. I haven't heard from her since." Joey looked so frail and strong at that moment all Seto wanted to do was assure him. But he knew there were no words for how they felt. "But don't feel bad she was a bitch before then too." The blonde smiled weakly and stood from his chair. "Why don't we take this out of the bedroom and into the living room? Think you could handle some food?"

"I think so." Seto answered confused by the sudden shift in the air. It wasn't relaxed but it was understanding and welcoming.

"Well I want you to know one thing Seto..." Joey was saying behind the counter an apron thrown on and a few ingredients already out. It was now the brunette suspected the other had begun while he was out. "I"m here if you need me to talk to. I don't claim to like you that much but I know I could. We are changed people but the choice is yours." Joey finished with a more sincere smile not waiting for an answer as he went back to cooking.

Seto didn't answer the unspoken words hanging between them even as Joey continued cooking the air heavy with his sentiments. Almost as if the words were pressing down on him or whispering in his ears. 'I won't stop you next time, but I think your stronger than this' hung like a cloud for all of three minutes before Seto began talking about Mokuba. About the good times and the bad and Joey listened adding his own thoughts on the boy that had been full of cheer. Eventually adding things about his sister as they talked for minutes into hours. Seto realized if he was going to over come this there was no else he would rather go through it with than the man he already owed his life to.


End file.
